Category Archives: IOTA

Turnip Island is OFFICIAL – now CT036R

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Congratulations to the Turnip IOTA Crew (Rich, KC1ARO and Paul, N1PSX) for officially activating Turnip Island.  The following is from Paul, N1PSX:

CT036R is official… 30 contacts yesterday including Aruba and Canada, mostly on 20m some on 40m… States ranging from California, South Dakota and Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia, the Carolinas, and many others… River water was very low, complicating transport with rocky interjections, but we got out there with two radios, two antennas and lunch… The island was official by noonish…

NCRC Crew Activating Turnip Island, CT

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The Newport County Radio Club will be qualifying a NEW Island On The Air (IOTA), Turnip Island, Housatonic River, Connecticut under the US Islands Award Program on Saturday 19 September, 2015 from 1200-2000 UTC using the call sign W1SYE. Operating frequency will be 14.250-14.259 MHz or 7.250 MHz, depending on band conditions.

Please try to work this never before activated island and help the crew get official recognition.

TURNIP_0149

Hope Island (there was Despair too)

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Pete, W1LAB, and Evan, KC1EFE, provided the following pictures from the Hope Island activation.  That actually was the day after Despair Island was activated.

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Evan, KC1EFE, at the mic, with his father to his left, and Jim, KA1ZOU, admiring the day. (Note the LiFePO4 battery running the rig on the middle of the table, and the larger marine battery running the laptop)

HopePano1

Panoramic view of the Hope Island setup — Gooseberry Island is off the coast of Hope

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Evan, KC1EFE, at the control

HopeAnt

Vertical Antenna used on most W1SYE IOTA Activations (Cushcraft R6000)

A potential future IOTA - Goosberry Island

A potential future IOTA – Goosberry Island

Dyer Island Activation a Huge Success

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An intrepid team consisting of John – K1JSM, Willy – W1LY, Pete – W1LAB, and Evan (Call sign pending) traveled to Dyer Island on July 25th.  Their adventure was quite successful, and fulfills the requirements for “Qualified” to make Dyer officially US Islands Award Program RI019S.

They worked a total of 259 stations, 50 of which were DX.  Congratulations guys, and thanks for making a lot of Island on the Air hunters happy!

Erecting the antenna

Erecting the antenna

Setup time

A view of the station from down the beach

New ham Evan at the mic.

New ham Evan at the mic.

BTW: Evan joined us at the GOTA station to see what ham radio was all about — he must have liked it as he just took and passed his General, missing the Extra by a couple of questions.  Nice to see him on the air so quickly.

John - K1JSM, making an IOTA Hunter happy

John – K1JSM, making an IOTA Hunter happy

Willy - W1LY doing what he does best.

Willy – W1LY doing what he does best.

Another view of the station

Another view of the station

Sadly, Pete – W1LAB isn’t in the photos above, as he was behind the lens.  Thanks for the nice pictures, and for the logistical support Pete!